BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --While Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has raised the profile of his Mormon faith, his church stays out of politics, a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said Sunday during a visit to Birmingham.

"I think it's important to understand that the church separates itself from any political candidate. We don't support any political candidate or any political party," said Elder Larry W. Gibbons, a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. "The church would take a stand on a moral issue but not support a political candidate."

Gibbons was in town this weekend to preside over the semi-annual Bessemer Stake Conference. On Sunday he met with reporters after a two-hour meeting at the church's Indian Springs campus in Shelby County.

Bessemer Stake President Lanny Smartt estimates that there are about 7,200 member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in central Alabama, including Birmingham. The Bessemer Stake -- or district -- makes up a portion of that area.

Asked about what they would like southerners, many of whom may not know anything about their church, to understand, Smartt and Gibbons said they believe many of the same things as other Christian churches.

"What we would like people to understand is that we believe, first and foremost, in God the eternal father and his son Jesus Christ ... that we worship Christ. We try our best to follow Christ," Gibbons said. "We believe in the Bible and accept the New Testament as scripture and that the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was lost during the dark ages ... was restored and is back on the Earth in completeness."

"We believe that there is much truth in all churches, but that the fullness had to be restored by God himself coming back and we want everybody to know about that ... It's important to tell people about it so we do a lot of missionary work," Gibbons said.

Joseph Smith was the man through whom Christ's church was restored in modern times, according to the church's website.

Smartt added that church members believe in Baptism by immersion and believe that Christ died and was resurrected.